HornTeacher Posted March 12, 2014 Share Posted March 12, 2014 Entertainment, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N.E. Brigand Posted March 12, 2014 Share Posted March 12, 2014 I was just reading these remarks on the Vienna Philharmonic's recent appearance in San Francisco (three concerts plus related workshops and panel discussions), and was struck by the following: What most intrigued me, however, was the talk by this unreconstructed Schoenbergian I mentioned. He mocked the idea that art should be a constant to hold on to in a changing world, and the audience duly tittered. He believed that the function of art is to act as a shock wave heralding changes in society. That put him in direct conflict not only with the following speaker, an orchestra representative who mentioned how its concerts provided solace (his word) to the Austrian people during World War I, as well as its role in acting as a cultural ambassador for the Emperor Karl's peace feelers--neither of which you could do by offending listeners with artistic shock waves--but with the lush, moving performance of Schoenberg's own early, pre-atonal Verklärte Nacht that we'd just heard. I say he was speaking arrant nonsense. The function of art is to move and affect the hearer or viewer emotionally. If you can do that by being edgy, fine, but that's not the only permissible way; and getting edgier and edgier to outdo previous generations of edginess rapidly yields diminishing returns: you wind up triumphantly holding up the package and leaving out the contents. My emphasis added. For those who don't speak German: Verklärte Nacht is probably better known on these shores as Transfigured Night; Phantom Regiment performed it in 2000. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HornTeacher Posted March 12, 2014 Share Posted March 12, 2014 I was just reading these remarks on the Vienna Philharmonic's recent appearance in San Francisco (three concerts plus related workshops and panel discussions), and was struck by the following: My emphasis added. For those who don't speak German: Verklärte Nacht is probably better known on these shores as Transfigured Night; Phantom Regiment performed it in 2000. Thank you, NE, for contributing that. And to express further upon "Transfigured Night.": a night may be transfigured, but it is merely that -- a transfiguration of the original night. And in the end, the original night remains -- if it did not, the artist would have nothing on which to base his transfiguration -- and the transfiguration would then lose any significance whatsoever. I am in slight conflict with the statement "The function of art is to move and affect the viewer or listener." While on a basic basis, I agree with that statement; however, "art" may also be defined as "man's response to his surroundings or circumstances." Please -- I do not say this in order to enter into a detailed argument of the relative fact or error of my statement. I merely throw it out there for consideration. What I do wish to say is that once a person creates his "art," it is therefore his response to his surroundings. Much of the "Art" of the period 1914-1920 was most certainly NOT what we would call "beautiful"; rather, it reflected the angst and uncertainty of the time -- a time in which a world was either at war, or recovering from that war. I believe that these artists were creating what they felt -- and not necessarily with any afterthought as to how it would be received by the viewer. Crap...sorry for being so long-winded. I had resolved to stay away from posting such pompous BS...unfortunately, I guess I have to rekindle my resolve. In any case, thank you for posting what you did. It is most certainly wonderful food for thought. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N.E. Brigand Posted March 12, 2014 Share Posted March 12, 2014 You weren't long-winded at all. And I think that this music critic's definition of art's purpose as "to move and affect the viewer or listener" is entirely complementary to your description of art during WWI as having "reflected the angst and uncertainty of the time": if those emotions were conveyed to the listeners and viewers, they were "affected" by the art. Notice how this feeds right back to the regular DCP debate on the meanings of "effect" and "engagement". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu Posted March 12, 2014 Share Posted March 12, 2014 (edited) Terms such as Art. Intellectual, Musical Academia, and Engagement have all been applied to DCI; which is fine. Terms such as Entertainment, Competitive Sport, and other commercial oriented terms have been, for better terminology, poo-pooed by many or described as nothing more than marketing ploys as it applies to DCI; which I suppose is also fine. However, Entertainment and Competitive Sport both sell out 60,000 seat stadiums across the nation with ticket purchasing fans; where as Artistic Intellectual Engagements of Musical Academia have a notoriously hard time filling up medium sized venues of 5,000 seats or less. It seems to me that DCI apparently wants ‘all’ of the above aspects, which is impossible to attain for many reasons, and y’all need to make a direction choice. If DCI is Artistic Intellectual Engagement with ties to Musical Academia we need to move DCI into smaller venues and be satisfied existing in that realm; however if DCI wants to fill up huge stadiums in Atlanta, San Antonio, Indianapolis, etc… DCI needs to leave the ‘Art’, leave the ‘Intellect’, leave the ‘Engagement’, and leave the Musical Academia’ to progressive performance artists and dive fully into the realm of Entertaining Competitive Musical Sport!!! Edited March 12, 2014 by Stu Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HornTeacher Posted March 12, 2014 Share Posted March 12, 2014 Just because one happens to hold one or more collegiate degrees does not render one to be an "ivory tower" elitist, and I resent the notion, whether accidental or not, that it does. I can tell you from personal experience that one's affinity for things such as DCI Drum and Bugle Corps, competitive athletics, and NASCAR racing doesn't sit very well with one's former "Ivory tower elitist" colleagues. However, one has to merely shrug his shoulders and take the attitude "suck it if you can't accept it." One does not seek to control their lives, and one certainly doesn't allow them (or anyone else, for that matter) to control his. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N.E. Brigand Posted March 12, 2014 Share Posted March 12, 2014 People keep asking if drum corps is a sport. Let me turn the question around: is ice dancing an art? If your answer is no, I would ask: why not, if ballet dancing is an art? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted March 13, 2014 Share Posted March 13, 2014 sometimes the 300 staff arent in on it all..if ya know what I mean ....lol...im sure you do.....either way..I might agree that last year GREAT..this year...hmmmm we shall see...more of this moving on?....maybe in another 5 or 6 years..ok.......hey you teachin this summer?...pm me oh I know how that goes. They once forgot to tell me they added a show until that day when they called and said "hey where are you?" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted March 13, 2014 Share Posted March 13, 2014 dcp keeps me insane...err.. i mean... sane....err...well........ nevermind see my website responsibilities are way down, so I have time to kill LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted March 13, 2014 Share Posted March 13, 2014 I agree; but activities which combine the criteria of being athletic in nature, artistic in nature, entertaining in nature, and subjectively evaluated by judges within a competitive environment, can be classified in the same manner; and these include Olympic Figure Skating, WGI Winter Drum Line, Olympic Halfpipe Snowboarding, National Cheerleading Association, WGI Winter Guard, Olympic Freestyle Skiing, Drum Corps International, as well as many other similar activities which have all of those same aspects. One can say that DCI and WGI Winter Drum Line are in a unique sub-set within that list because they use live music, but one can also say that National Competitive Cheerleading is also a unique sub-set because it is the only one on the list which utilizes Cheers. Nevertheless, each and every activity on that list fit the criteria of being athletic in nature, artistic in nature, entertaining in nature, and subjectively evaluated by judges within a competitive environment which make them all a form of, wait for it.......... sport. and in everyone of those endeavours, judging can be nebulous, and entertainment isn't universal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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